Linchpin
by mosylu
Summary: Caitlin's dead-set on her part of the plan. Harry's in favor. Iris, Jesse, and Joe aren't too thrilled. Cisco's got his own ideas. Finale reaction fic.


"I'm doing it," Caitlin announced, her voice brittle. "It has to be me."

Joe said gently, "Caitlin, we can find some other way - "

"Don't try to talk me out of it."

Iris said, "We're not - we - "

"It has to be me." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the cortex, into her medical lab. It had a sliding glass door with hydraulics, not well-suited to slamming, but something about the way she snapped it shut was slammy anyway.

They all looked at each other.

"She has a point," Harry said, always the one to speak the unpleasant truths.

"She just got away from him," Iris snapped at him.

"She's still not sleeping!" Jesse added. When everyone looked at her, she said, "What? I have eyes. I can see the dark circles under hers. And the way she picks at food. And - look, of all people I should know what it felt like to be held by Zoom."

Harry swallowed hard and said heavily, "But she's right. She can distract him. It's the smartest idea anybody's put forth. And this whole plan is toast if we don't have one excellent distraction. Joe? You got somethin' better?"

"No - "

"Iris? Jesse?"

"We can - "

"There's got to be - "

Cisco walked away and left them all arguing. He paused in the treadmill room, picked up a box, and lugged it along with him to the side door of the medical lab. He fiddled with the keypad and it whooshed open. Caitlin spun in her chair, her eyes sparking fire.

"Hey," he said. "Just me."

"I locked that," she growled.

He wiggled his fingers. "Nothing is locked to the great Cisco-dini."

"You picked my lock with a vibe?"

"Nah, I got a back door code to every lock in this place."

She spun back and crossed her arms, glaring at her shelves. Any minute now, she was going to start twisting all the beakers so the spouts pointed the same direction.

He set the box on the bed. He grabbed a little rolling stool, dragged it up next to her, and plopped down. "So," he said. "You wanna play honeypot."

"Don't start. You don't think we should do it at all."

He sighed, looking at the ceiling. "Doesn't feel right, coming up with a plan behind Bare's back like this. Especially us two."

"I know what you mean, but Barry's not capable of thinking rationally right now."

"Yeah, I know." He dropped his gaze. "Are you?"

"What kind of question is that?"

Holding her gaze, he reached out and put one hand over hers where it was clenched on her arm. They both knew he could feel it shaking.

Hand, arm, shoulders. Body.

She twisted away. "So what if I am afraid," she said in a tremulous voice. "It doesn't change the truth. I distract J - Hun - "

"Go ahead, call him Jay," Cisco said. "You did for a long time."

"I distract him. A lot. And I know what he wants to hear me say. I can spin that out." She let out her breath. "Oh, I can spin that out. I know how to handle narcissists. He's not the first one. You know that."

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"It's not like last year. You, with Thawne? This is my idea, Cisco, not anybody else's. Nobody's pushing me into it. I w-want - I think I need to do it."

He looked away. He'd been trying not to draw that same parallel himself, trying not to think about the way that whole thing had ended, him trapped in a bubble with his worst nightmare. "Yeah, I know. But it's the whole you being vulnerable to a kidnappy maniac that I'm seriously not okay with."

"You think I'm thrilled?" she asked him. "But it has to be that way. He'd never believe it if I came with an entourage. I have be alone with him. Right - " Her breath started to hitch. "Right there. Where he can - in arm's reach."

He got up and went to the hospital bed. "You're not gonna be alone with him," he repeated.

"I have to do this!" she cried. "I can't be afraid all my life. I can't hide from what happened. This is so much bigger than me. This is worlds at stake, Cisco. Universes. Multiple. I have an advantage and I have to use it, because the alternative is - "

"You don't have to tell me any of that," he said. "But you're not gonna be alone with him."

"Cisco - "

He dumped the box out and sorted all the pieces. "Remember this? I was working on it."

She glanced at it, startled, diverted. Her brow crinkled. "No. No, I don't remember it."

Fair enough. He had a lot of things he was working on, day-to-day. Wasn't like he knew all of her projects. "Full body hologram projector," he said. "Got a hell of a range on it, too. We fooled a shitload of people into thinking the Flash was running around when Barry didn't have his powers. Shouldn't be hard to fool just one that you're standing in front of him."

Her eyes shot up to his.

"You are not gonna be alone with him," he said for the fourth time.

She panted for breath, shaking harder than ever. "I - I -"

"You're gonna do this," he said. "I know that. You're gonna do this, and you're gonna use every scrap of that advantage, and you're gonna spin it out exactly as far as we need you to, and it's going to work even though you're going to be so scared, you'll wanna throw up on your shoes."

"Not my shoes," she said. "I pay good money for my shoes."

"Which is why you won't throw up. Because you're tough."

He held the headpiece out. She took it, staring at it. "I feel like it's cheating," she said faintly. "Taking the easy way out."

"Easy? Farthest thing from it. You're going to look him in the eye and you're going to fuck with his head and you're going to be so damn brave." He held up the chestpiece. "But you're going to be safe. And you are not going to be alone with him ever again."

She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, almost too tight. That was how she hugged him now, though, knotted tight, clinging to him as if he might be taken away from her at any moment.

He held her almost as tight, wishing he could do that until she stopped shaking, started sleeping, started eating, stopped being afraid.

But that was going to take a lot longer than the duration of a hug. Of all people, he should know that.

Maybe this would speed that process up a little.

FINIS


End file.
